@Scotty: There's a barrier island creole (in the Carolinas maybe) that uses them indiscriminately (I think they normally use 'she') because the African language that's part of the creole didn't distinguish pronoun gender. I'll have to do some digging in books I've got lying around to find it though.
It's possible. . .English already got rid of its informal pronouns (thou, thy, etc.). However with all the feminist grammar stuff drawing a load of attention to the gender specific pronouns, it's unlikely to change.
@Flipside (who posted while I was typing this): The OED exists to catalog words, nothing more. They have etymologies for all their words. You're right though, in that printing did a LOT for the standardization of English. Before Caxton started printing English stuff, there was effectively no standardization (except for West Saxon Old English, which dominated literature before 1066). However printing can also cause problems of its own. English 'gost' and 'goul' became 'ghost' and 'ghoul' due to a Dutch printing error that caught favor as a better looking spelling.
For your perusal and general interest: (it also appears there was some dialectical variation of 'ask' in OE as well, however in the bit of Wessex Old English I've studied the 'aks' form is more common).
From the OED:
Ask:
Etymology: Common Germanic: Old English áscian was cognate with Old Frisian âskia, Old Saxon êscôn, êscan, Old High German eiscôn, Middle High German eischen, German heischen, Old Germanic *aiskôjan: compare Sanskrit ish to seek, ichchhā wish. The original long á gave regularly the Middle English (Kentish) ōxi; but elsewhere was shortened before the two consonants, giving Middle English a, and, in some dialects, e. The result of these vowel changes, and of the Old English metathesis asc-, acs-, was that Middle English had the types ōx, ax, ex, ask, esk, ash, esh, ass, ess. The true representative of the orig. áscian was the s.w. and w.midl. ash, esh, also written esse (compare æsceash n.1, wæsc(e)anwash n.), now quite lost. Acsian, axian, survived in ax, down to nearly 1600 the regular literary form, and still used everywhere in midl. and southern dialects, though supplanted in standard English by ask, originally the northern form. Already in 15th cent. the latter was reduced dialectally to asse, past tense ast, still current dialectally.
Action:
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman accioun, acciun, actione, actioun, Anglo-Norman and Middle French accion, Anglo-Norman and Middle French, French action (of a person) performance of deeds, activity (1223 in Old French), exercise of a claim before a judge, pursual of a lawsuit, legal proceedings (1260), way of proceeding (14th cent.), effect, influence (1426), public discourse (a1564), (in drama or oratory) gesture (a1592), operation of a physical or immaterial agent (1646), events occurring in a play (1660), financial title representing a share of capital (1669; 12th cent. in Old French as acciun), in Anglo-Norman also (in law) matter in dispute (13th cent.), right to bring a legal action (first half of the 14th cent.), and its etymon classical Latin actiōn-, āctiō activity, doing, act, deed, dramatic incident, proposal, measure, policy, (of an orator) delivery, speech, speaking, legal process, suit, right to bring a suit, plea, statement of claim, in post-classical Latin also conduct (6th cent.), canon of the Mass (7th cent.), thanksgiving (from 8th cent. in British sources in actio gratiarum; also 1244 in a British source as actio), mystery play (c1225 in a British source), record of proceedings (16th cent. in a British source) < āct- past participial stem of agere to do (see act v.) + -iō-ion suffix1. Compare Old Occitan accion, acihon (1385), Catalan acció (14th cent.), Spanish acción (c1250), Portuguese ação (1257), Italian azione (a1306).
EDIT: So, possible that 'action' influenced 'ask', but hard to prove either way.
You guys get to ramble all day about your engineering and physics and maths, I'm taking my turn.
